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Topic: TARA 3 Niroo & Kapil (India) (Read 3784 times)

Life is about taking chances and sometimes, having to learn fast when thrown into the deep end. For father and son team Niroo and Kapil Asrani, the latter cannot be more true, or literal.

As a child, Kapil wanted to learn how to swim and his father did it the only way he knew how, by picking up his son and tossing him into the pool. "The way my dad had thrown me into the swimming pool in order to teach me how to swim, it communicates a lot about the person he is," recalls Kapil with affection.

The good news is, Kapil managed to learn and the success fostered a great father and son relationship that has since grown beyond the familial, to that of friendship. In fact, one glance at Niroo and Kapil would conjure the image of two friends hanging out, despite the fact that the elder man, currently enjoying his time as an actor, is all of 53 years old. At 25, Kapil is less than half his father's age, but the HR executive has the same level, if not more of the enthusiasm towards the race.

One of the reasons Kapil wanted to take part, aside from seeing the world in the race format, is to bond more with his father. This probably explains why the duo has yet to plan on race strategies and would rather run the race one step at a time.

Explains Kapil, "Our strategy is to go by gut feeling and take each thing as it comes. If you are prepared for anything, everything comes easy." And Daddy concurs on this point. "We do not like to copy. We will cross the river when we reach there."

When it comes to challenges, Kapil has no problem with Dad taking control, because he is used to it, but not in the way you think. Outside of the family, the duo is also part of the same acting company, where Niroo serves as actor cum director, with his son as one of the actors. Notes Kapil, "Although we share a father-son relationship, we are more like friends. That's rare to see in such a relationship."

This act of following the father stems from the fact that on the one occasion Kapil never listened and allowed his overconfidence to take over, his actions "messed up a show", says Niroo. Those days are gone and Kapil has grown into his own as an actor, and his proudest moment as a father and director was when Kapil won accolades during a performance directed by Niroo.

Despite having a short fuse, Kapil is looking to keep cool under pressure. His strengths, he says, is to enjoy even a stressful situation, depend on his communication skills and rely the ability to think on his feet.

Balancing him will be Niroo, who despite his recent acting foray, is an engineer by trade. "My engineering background, my analytical skills, & my sense of direction are my true strengths," he notes. And if they win, the duo is also looking at the prize money to expand their theatre group. "We will utilise this money in building a theatre stage which I want to build in the name of my mentor," say Niroo.

"We don't feel bad even though we lost because my father and me got to do things we would have never thought of doing in our wildest dreams," Kapil said, adding, "We lost because we did not know how to drive an automatic vehicle. It was frustrating when we were stuck in traffic, and we did not know to drive that vehicle."

Now that story does not match what was shown on AXN. ARA3 episode 4 shows Niroo and Kapil unable to get a stuck key out of the ignition, which effectively stranded them and lost a huge amount of time. They were never out of last place for the entire episode. It may be that inability to get a key out of the ignition is related to not having the ability to drive an automatic shift, but I strongly doubt it. Niroo and Kapil were fools for not learning whichever shift they did not know before the race. One of the things you learn with very modern automatic cars is that you much tap the brake before you can get the key out of the ignition. It took me one indelible lesson to learn it when I got my first(and last because I am do not have vision to drive) automatic car and my wife had to show me how to do it.

They were talking about driving an automatic transmission which as we saw, they had trouble with in Taiwan, not stick shift. India is full of manual transmission cars. An automatic transmission is a luxury in India, not standard as it is here.

Often in an automatic, you have to have the car in Park before the key can be removed. It may have been that they had the car in Neutral rather than Park, which would stop them from being able to remove the key.

Kima: So who did you like the most during the race?Kapil: Tish. It has to be Tish. Sheís extremely sweet and genuine.

Kima: What did you learn from this race?Kapil: Number 1. If you donít know where to go, donít panic.Number 2. Cockroaches look & feel even worse the morning after youíve eaten them!

Kima: What is the one thing you have noticed in all the contestants?Kapil: That everybody has their own unique weak point.

Kima: ok, letís get down to racial topics now (smiles). What is the one thing you have noticed when it comes to racial identity?

Kapil: (smiles) Well, for starters, even though I was mentally prepared about the whole racial diversity and stuff, it still sounds odd sometimes when I hear the other contestants curse about the local language of a particular country and how they donít understand the culture etc. Even though I tried to be as politically correct as possible, it was difficult putting on a straight face.

Were the reception and hospitality you received from the locals nice?

The locals were welcoming, but definitely, there was a preference that was displayed by everyone towards1. People with similar features2. (this is a big one) women!

What do you think could be the reason for this?

Nobody was extremely nasty with us because weíre Indians, in fact some were quite fascinated because we didnít look like your normal American backpackers, but to be fair, they didnít know what to expect. Oh hell, we scared them to death too. East Asian countries all have very soft spoken people, and we definitely startled them with our loud behaviour. In any case, what counts is the welcome given to us, which was good, but others on the race had it a little easier.

Did people stare at you like how people over here stare at foreigners?

Oh yes, especially in Vietnam, we noticed a lot of stares, but Thailand, Taiwan etc. were extremely discreet and seemed comfortable with all kinds of people. But again, the polite behaviour stayed till the time we didnít initiate contact. Once we tried to talk, some people found it funny and laughed at our face, while the others were so scared! But yes, the way we stare at foreigners in India is way above the degree of attention we got there.

Did you feel comfortable being with people of different races?

It was extremely difficult for us to bridge the gap created by the difference in cultures of our country & East Asia. But the people on the The Amazing Race were so cool, that everyone there accepted us irrespective of these differences. Everybody was so warm, welcoming and most importantly, genuine. That is something we really miss even among Indians. They speak and act with their heart, and nobody is afraid of the truth. Love & hate are both taken sportingly. Definitely, even though breaking in was difficult, we were quite comfortable once accepted.

What do you think is the main cause of this race groupism and divide we see in Asian countries?

Teams on the race from Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong, Thailand, the Phillipines etc. were all on a similar plane, and even shared similar interests. They traveled so much within their sector that everyone knew each othersí cities, cultures etc. Itís only that their life is a far cry from ours. I think this divide is self created by the Indian sub continent & our rigid cultures. While they travel to each othersí countries, we fight with five of our seven neighbouring states. While they claim land from the sea, we take ten years to make a sea link. While they accept gays & swingers, we are yet to acknowledge the existence of a voluntary sex worker (they are rescued!!). No wonder theyíve moved on to better stuff, and weíre caught with religion and politics!

Thank you so much for your time Kapil. If you had the chance to take part in this race again, would you?